TI Korea (CEO Kent Chon, www.ti.com/ww/kr ) July 26, 2013 – TI (CEO Kent Chon) has added a new product to its popular TI Microcontroller (MCU) LaunchPad ecosystem. Launched at an exceptional price of $19.99, the Hercules™ LaunchPad is the most affordable Hercules MCU evaluation platform, providing developers with an introductory step to evaluate MCU performance and safety features and deepen their understanding of Hercules MCUs.

TI’s Hercules Launchpad is a modular Quick-Launch evaluation kit that includes a development board, USB cable, and materials. The included Hercules MCU demo and on-board emulation features allow users to test the advanced safety performance provided by Hercules MCUs. Hercules Launchpad is available in two models: one based on the Hercules TMS570LS04x MCU and another based on the Hercules RM42x MCU. The dual lockstep ARM® Cortex™-R4-based Hercules MCU is designed for safety-centric automotive, industrial, and medical applications that must comply with industrial safety standards such as ISO 26262 and IEC 61508.

The TI MCU Launchpad ecosystem, encompassing the MSP430™ Launchpad, C2000™ Launchpad, Tiva™ C Series Launchpad, and the latest Hercules Launchpad, provides developers with flexibility and scalability through various Booster Pack expansion boards. By leveraging the superior capabilities of these Booster Packs, developers can facilitate rapid design and research. Developers can not only quickly start development by utilizing TI's free software, tools, and resources, but also share project ideas and find the best solutions through TI's large community.

Key Features and Benefits of the Hercules Launchpad

· Hercules MCUs designed for safety applications requiring compliance with functional safety standards such as IEC 61508 and ISO 26262 are available for evaluation

· Increased design flexibility through a 40-pin Booster Pack header extending expandable MCU pins

· Provides space for additional headers to complete access to all MCU pins

The development board supporting functional demos includes a USB cable, quick start guide, etc., allowing for rapid evaluation immediately upon unboxing.

· Integration of an on-board XDS100v2 JTAG emulator, LED lighting, light sensor, and SCI-PC serial communication port for design flexibility on a USB-powered board

· Equipped with evaluation software, including a Hercules MCU Safety Demo featuring a downloadable host GUI (graphical user interface) for selecting and running demos

· Provides demo software drivers using the Educational Booster Pack, an add-on module that offers an accelerometer, LCD display, 3-color LED, and other features to help users become familiar with the MCU's I/O interface.

· &nbsStreamline development with support for TI's latest Eclipse-based CCS IDE (Code Composer Studio™ Integrated Development Environment).

· Supports developers to quickly start code development on the Hercules MCU platform by providing a download of HALCoGen, a GUI-based code generation tool.

Supply timing and order

The TI Hercules TMS570LS04 MCU Launchpad (LAUNCHXL-TMS57004) and Hercules RM42x MCU Launchpad (LAUNCHXL-RM42) are available for purchase at the TI eStore for $19.99. Additionally, designers can add MSP430, C2000, Tiva C Series Launchpads, and Booster Packs to their TI MCU collection at www.ti.com/herc-launchpad-pr-lp . Once familiar with the Hercules MCU through the use of the Hercules Launchpad, more advanced designs will be possible using various other Hercules MCU tools.